Tara
by MysticalButterfly98
Summary: Tara Radford just moved in from Alaska, and she's already got Rodrick's eye on her. Tara's got a lot to learn, but now without the help from her new best friend CoCo. But will Tara's shocking past lead Rodrick away forever? rated M for mostly language
1. Chapter 1

Yeah yeah, so I am that cliché new student who's lost in a sea of popularity and peer-pressure. I'm Tara. I am going into junior year at Plainview Public High. I moved here from Fairbanks, Alaska, so that's why I look like an albino squirrel or something. We moved to get away from the cold, and other reasons. I guess I will miss the cold, it gave me an all natural blush, and we had tons of snow days. But, I'm glad I came here. I can finally have a social life.

It is finally the first day of school; well for me. School started September 4th, but its December 15th now. I look out the frosty window and see a thin blanket of snow covering the ground. Great, its just like Autumn in Alaska all over again. I shrug and rub my eyes to wake them up and straighten out my lashes. I take a look in the mirror and notice my lovely hair. By lovely, I mean it looks like a baby poodle died on my head. I wonder if baby poodles actually look like that… that would be creepy. Anyways, I push my tangled brown curls out of my face and behind my ears. I notice that my eyes are red and puffy, and that my nose stud is sticking halfway out of its hole. My eyebrow ring is all crooked, and my vertical labret barbell is sticking up from the top. I shove my stud back into my nostril and start squishing my cheeks around with my palms, making weird faces and noises. Might as well get it all out now rather than embarrass myself at school. Oh right! I have school this morning. I glance at my clock, which reads 7:38 am. School starts at 8 am, so I run down the stairs. Actually, I trip, fall, and then tumble down the stairs.

"Oh! Ouch! Argh! Oogie! Oh, that one hurt!" I grunted as I rolled down the stairs and to the bottom. Mom is just sitting down at the table, reading Seventeen Magazine with her glasses perched on the bottom of her nose. She's got a lit cigarette in her in her left hand and a warm cup of hot chocolate in the other. She looks up at me and the words 'I should've seen this coming' all written all over her face. Then she breaks into laughter as I grab onto the railing of the stairs and try to pull myself up.

"Yeah, thanks Mommy. I love you too." I said sarcastically.

"Breakfast's on the table, Hunn." She says absentmindedly.

I eat my toaster waffles and crispy bacon in peace. Bacon is so nice and crispy. I could survive on bacon forever, but not. while I'm daydreaming about all the bacon in the world, Mom reminds me that I have to be at school in 13 minutes.

13 MINUTES! I CAN'T GET READY IN 13 MINUTES! Oh, wait yes I can! I sprint up to my room and grab my sparkly hairbrush. I tear it through my hair and tug angrily at the tangles. Come on hair! I don't have time for this! I have a life to attend to!

After I brush out my hair, I run to the bathroom and brush my teeth and wash my face with my favorite peppermint face wash. I pat my face down with a face cloth and tie up my hair. Before I even realize it, I am back in my room and tearing through my closet for something to wear. I pull out a Led Zeppelin t-shirt and a pair of nice dark jeans. I quickly change the band-aids on my arms and throw on my clothes. I quickly open my drawer to get out a pair of socks. I pull out a popsicle one and an Angry Birds one and stick my feet into them. I don't like to wear the Angry Birds one because its all linty now, but I don't really have the time to examine each of my socks for their lint content right now. I grab my bag with the Hogwarts Crest on it, and I pull my cell phone off its charger and shove it into my pocket. I grab my iPod, headphones, chewing gum, and schedule and stick them all in my bag.

I check my watch and see that my bus comes in 15 seconds. Oh. My. God. I can't miss my bus! I jump down from the top step and land like a kitty on the living room floor.

"Bye Mom!" I shout as I throw myself out of the front door and skid my way down to the corner of my street. Oh crap! The bus is like 15 feet behind me. I pick up the pace and make it to the stop sign half a second before the bus does. I haven't caught my breath yet as the door to the bus opens. I grab onto the railing and drag myself up the stairs of the bus. The bus driver smiles at me with her slightly yellowing teeth.

"First day?"

"You know it." I manage to say.

I start looking for a place to sit. Wow, these girls look mean. They're all giving me dirty looks. I see a girl with blonde pigtails looking out the window. Her huge Gucci bag was sitting in the open space next to her. Seriously, you could fit a mall in there.

"Excuse me, can I sit here?" I say shyly. She turns and gives me a death stare, and then looks at her bag, and then back at me. Oh… I guess not. But then, I say something I really shouldn't have.

"Uhmm…. Your Gucci bag does NOT need it's own seat." I say clearly. She sighs and puts her bag on her lap. I sit down, happily. I pop my hand into my Hogwarts bag and pull out my iPod. I push my hair behind my ears to put my headphones in and Pigtails gasps in horror. Is there a spider in my hair or something?

"Ew! You have so many piercings! And you have those big hole-thingies in your ears!" she says in a nasally voice.

Why thank you, Pigtails, I'd of never noticed they were there until you notified me. I just look at her.

"So?" I ask her.

"It's gross, you emo girl!" she snorts.

I have some not so nice words I'd like to say, but I just shrug and start listening to music. I keep on clicking 'shuffle' until one of my favorite songs pops up.

"…Love me or hate me still an obsession

Love me or hate me that is the question

If you love me, Thank you

If you hate me, f*** you…" (Lyrics by Lady Sovereign)

I'm lost in the song when we pull up to the school. In a rush of bags, boys, and designer clothing, I'm already off the bus and getting pushed around towards the steps that lead up to the Main Entrance. Here goes nothing…. I start walking up the steps, trying to avoid the big crowd and get to the Principal's Office without losing an arm, or a piercing.

I'm looking around, seeing a blur of different faces and clothing. Catching bits of conversation I shouldn't be hearing.

"Dude, you shoulda been there last night it was-."

"Gina, I told you that this eyeshadow would make your eyes pop!"

"Where do babies come from?"

Maybe I shouldn't have heard that last one. I shudder on the inside and continue on my way. I finally see the blue sign with the words 'Main Office' written in white print. I pull out my schedule from my bag and actually bother to look at it this time,

Period 1: College Pre-Algebra

Room 241

Fuller, Kelly, Ms.

Math first thin gin the morning… greeaaattttt….. I'm not a math person. It makes me upset. I step into the Main Office and go up to the secretary. She looks like a nice person.

"Um, hi. My name is Tara Radford. I'm the new student from-" I started but then the secretary looked up and smiled cheerfully.

"-Alaska! Welcome to Plainview, Sweetie! Please take a seat and Principal Mason will be with you shortly!" she said sweetly and pointed towards the chair. I sat down and rested my elbow on the armrest. I looked around the office, but nothing really caught my attention. All of a sudden, I heard yelling from a closed door to my right.

It sounded a bit like "Detention for 2 weeks! Don't ever let me catch you ditching again Heffley!"

Well, that's exactly how it sounded. Then I heard some more yelling.

"What? Two whole weeks?" someone cried out.

"I'll call your mother if you keep on arguing with me, Heffley!" someone else barked. Oh, feisty eh?

"Yessir…" I heard and then the door opened. Out came a very tall boy. He was about 6'4, but wasn't very muscular. He had some "guyliner" around his brown eyes and he was sighing and grumbling angrily. He was followed by an older, burly looking man with a sandy colored buzz cut and soft blue eyes. "Guyliner" looked at me with a puzzled face, as if he was trying to figure out who I was. I cocked my head and looked right back at him. Our mini staring contest was interrupted by the older, burly man.

"Ah, Ms. Radford! Welcome to Plainview High School! I am Principal Mason!" he said in a warm tone, making me forget that he was just yelling at "Guyliner" a few minutes ago. Not knowing what to say, I just smiled and stood up.

"Uh…Hi." I tried to say 'Salutations kind Principal. How do you do?' but that didn't work out too well. My heart was beating really fast for some reason; and "Guyliner" was still staring me down.

"This is one of your new classmates, Rodrick Heffley." Principal Mason said, gesturing to him. I have Rodrick a tiny little wave and whispered 'Hi'. He gave me one of those little head nods. I don't get why guys do that…. It makes me wonder if I can do that.

"Now off to class. Heffley." Principal Mason said sternly and Rodrick left without saying anything.

"Please, follow me into my office Ms. Radford." He said kindly and I picked up my bag and followed him through the door. I sat down in the blue armchair across from his desk. Principal Mason put his finger on the intercom and called out someone's name.

"Nicolette Dires, please report to the Main Office. I repeat, Nicolette Dires, please report to the Main Office."

I just sit there awkwardly, not knowing what to do or say. Principal Mason notices this and makes some small talk until "Nicolette Dires" comes.

"Have you met anyone yet?" he asks kindly.

"Um… no not yet, I almost missed the bus this morning so I didn't have time to socialize." I explained. He nodded and Nicolette walked into the office at last.

"Sorry I'm late, Sir." She says loudly and clearly. She's got honey colored hair up in braided pigtails and a nice peanut-buttery tan. Her eyes are green with flecks of blue and grey. She looks really friendly and nice.

"Ms. Dires, this is Tara Radford. She will be joining us for the rest of the years at Plainview High. I would like you to escort her to her classes please. You both have lunch together too." Principal Mason told Nicolette and she nodded. She turned to me and gave me the world's biggest smile. She didn't even blink at my piercings.

All of a sudden, Nicolette grabs my hand and pulls me out of the chair. She nearly made me swallow my own tongue ring, and that wouldn't be good. She's holding onto my wrist. "She'll be fine with me!" she says excitedly and runs out of the Main Office dragging me along. This'll be fun.

"Hi I'm Nicolette, but you can call me Nikki, or CoCo." She says warmly. I like this girl a lot. She's really sweet.

"Hi I bet you already know my name, but I'm Tara. Just thought you'd like to know…" I laugh at my lame excuse of introducing myself. She just smiles and chuckles quietly.

"Hey, you've got some cool looking piercings! They really suit your face. Especially the one in the middle of your lip and the one on your nose bridge. I've never even seen those kinds before!" she comments. I get a really warm, fuzzy vibe from her.

No one has ever complimented me on my piercings. Normally, its just the old ladies who scold me and say 'worthless punks like us shouldn't dare show our faces ever again, and how ladies back in their day couldn't even wear lipstick until they were married.'

Not that I actually cared….

"Oh, uh thanks! This one's called a Vertical Labret," I point to my lip, "and this one is called a nose bridge. I'm surprised I could even keep this one in, it has the highest rate of rejection." I explain as I point to the barbell in between my eyes and she nods enthusiastically. Next thing I know, we are already in front of room 241. My first class, College Pre-Algebra. CoCo nudges me and I look at her. For some reason I go all timid and small.

"You'll do fine Tara. I'll be back as soon as class ends to bring you to the next one." She reassures me. I nod and whisper 'thanks' and open the door to room 241.

"It wasn't that bad…. I understood everything that Ms. Fuller said." I told CoCo and she nodded her head.

"See, I told you that you would do great! Did you see any cute guys?" CoCo smirked and then stuck out her tongue.

"I was too scared to miss anything important to look around. But there was this one boy who kept on looking at me. I saw him this morning in the principal's office. I think his last name was Heffley."

"Oh, that's Rodrick." she said at once. "He's the wannabe rockstar, and he's got his own band called Loded Diper. He throws awesome house parties and likes to wear guyliner. His ex-girlfriend Kelly-Jean Binder is still crazy about him, but apparently he's single. " CoCo informs me.

"Wow, you really do know about some of the people in this school don't you?" I say. How does she know all this anyways?

"I work for the school paper. I have details on EVERY junior, senior, and sophomore." She says with pride. Well that explains everything… we continue talking about my first couple of classes as we walk down to the cafeteria for lunch. I was surprised I could have lunch this year. I'm taking mostly AP classes and electives, but my mom told me I needed to eat lunch especially this year so she made me drop Spanish Honors and just take regular Spanish. This left me an open space for lunch. I just realized how big this whole school is. Back in Fairbanks, there was only 50 juniors, and now there's 500.

While I'm looking around and listening to CoCo tell me about the pros and cons about all my teachers, we finally arrive at the double doors leading to the cafeteria. CoCo opens the door and stands aside, motioning for me to go in before her.

"Thanks!" I smile at her. She really is quite helpful and nice. I start to walk through the door but I end up crashing into someone. I am pushed back a couple of feet and my Hogwarts bag whacked them, but the person in front of me looks unaffected.

"Oh my God! I am SO SORRY!" I begin to spit out several different apologies and look up to see who I smacked into. Wow, what a coincidence; it was Rodrick. I love how I didn't see this coming even though this happens in all the chick-flicks. Rodrick just tilts his head.

"It's okay. But what do you have in that bag? Rocks?" he asks, rubbing his knee.

"Oh! Sorry! And that's boulders to you!" I say in a mock-serious voice, trying to be funny. Wow, that really was a bad joke. He looks alarmed for half a second, probably thinking 'Is this chick crazy? Why would she have boulders with her?' but then realizes I was kidding and smiles. He's looking directly into my eyes. Does that mean something? Is there an eyelash in my eye? Now I'm looking into his. They're a deep brown. Now lets get something straight, this all happened in a matter of 15 seconds.

"Hey! Rodrick! You comin' or what?" someone yells from the behind us. I turn my head slightly to see a group of three boys. One of them was a beach blonde with a ninja headband and nerd glasses. The other two had black hair and smirks on their faces.

"Yeah, wait up." He calls out and jogs slightly to catch up to them. They start to walk away, but I can hear them talking about me.

"Yo, who was that?"

"I dunno…"

"Well you should, she's cute." I start to blush, and then wonder if guys at this school have any subtlety.

"I think she's the new girl, from Alabama or something."

"Alaska!" I call out loudly, but not turning to face them, but then I wished I hadn't. CoCo just smiled.

"Flirting on your first day? I didn't know you had it in you!" she teases.

"Flirting? How does me walking into someone, and then making a stupid joke about the supposed rocks in my bag count as flirting?" I ask in a truly confused voice.

CoCo just sighs and shakes her head. "You've got a lot to learn, Alaska."

And that's pretty much how the first day went….

A/N: this is my first Wimpy Kid fic. Tell me if you like it, hate it, love it, despise it. Please review, your feedback leads to a better story.

Disclaimer- I don't own anything familiar. I don't own the lyrics- those go to Lady Sovereign. I don't own Hogwarts either (if I did, I would probably die from its awesomeness :])


	2. The Walk Home and a Big Cardboard Box

CoCo offered to walk me home today. Isn't that sweet? I love her already and I just met her today. We both head to my locker and I try to open it.

"24-40-07 wha-? Why isn't it opening?" I say to myself as I rattle the lock back in forth trying to open it. Its got my sweatshirt, my iPod, and my spare face jewelry in it. It also has my contacts, so its like my bedroom in a rectangle.

"24-40-07 GOT IT!" I shout with happiness. I am horrible at opening lockers, and water bottles. Ever since they made the cap smaller I can't seem to twist it so I end up stabbing the bottom with a pair of scissors and drinking it from the bottom. Anyways, I open my locker and grab my sweatshirt and iPod and stuff. I notice something written in the back of my locker. I stick my head in my locker and read what it says.

"Ravenclaw Rules, Slytherin Drools…" I read it out loud.

"I second that." Someone says from behind me and I get so surprised I smack my head in my locker. The person starts to snicker loudly and I know exactly who it is. CoCo.

"OH HELLO…." I shout at her and rub my head. That really hurt a lot. I wouldn't do that to anyone ever. Actually, I would.

CoCo keeps on laughing hard. Is she serious? This is my first day in here and I already hurt myself. Grrr.

"Ahahahaha! Okay okay I am sorry! Lets get to your house!" CoCo stifles her laughter and grabs my arm. She drags me along as she runs out of the hall, down the stairs, and out the main door.

"Co…Co…slow…down!" I yell as I am practically being dragged on the ground.

"Oh sorry! What's your address?" CoCo asks in a cute voice. I can't be mad at her, she's way too adorable with her bright yellow pigtails and bright pink lips.

"28 Windsor Court." I tell her. My house isn't much, but we had to get out of Alaska as soon as possible. Being in Long Island is a huge step up for me.

"Oh I know where that is!" CoCo exclaims and goes on her merry way, expecting me to follow her. She's already so far ahead of me I have to run to catch up with her. Then she just stops, turns around, and smiles. "Hey Tara, wanna go to the mall after we get you to your house?" she asks me.

"I wish I could, but I really have to unpack." I said disappointed. I really wanted to hit the mall. I wanted to check out Hot Topic and get some new tapers and stuff. CoCo looked disappointed.

"Hey! Maybe I can help you unpack!" she said excitedly.

"Are you sure? I mean I could do it myse-" I was cut off.

"Too bad, I'm helping! Now lets get to your house." She said and began skipping towards my house. She…. She's definitely someone. I pick up my pace and hear the snow crunching under my boots. This is just like Alaska. Stupid snow, go to like Texas or something. CoCo and I continue our journey towards my house and chatted quite a bit about the school district, Harry Potter, and the mall. Well, mostly about Harry Potter but hey, its not a crime.

"Draco's hot. I would kill to be in a make out scene in a movie with him." CoCo announced to the whole world. And by world, I mean street.

"Yes, but Draco is a smarmy little git." I reply. Sure Draco was hot, but he was really annoying. Just like this one kid Allen from second grade. He used to pull my hair and one time he put gum on my seat so when I sat down my skirt was ruined. Lets just say that wasn't a good day at all.

"True true, my love." CoCo nodded her head. Then we just looked at eachother and bursted into laughter. I knew CoCo was going to be a really good friend. I was really grateful that she actually made an effort to talk to me. She's really very sweet and cute and nice.

Just then, my thoughts were interrupted by CoCo grabbing my wrist and jerking me away from the part of the sidewalk closer to the road. I was so startled that I gasped and almost swallowed my gum. There was a big white van painted with runny black spray paint which just rode over the curb and almost hit me and CoCo.

"OH! YOU GUYS ARE THE COOLEST…" I shouted, my voice dripping with sarcasm. To emphasize my point, I began to clap loudly and obnoxiously. I know, I am truly awful when it comes to sarcasm. Oh shit. I think they heard me, because they are turning round.

With the sound of screeching tires, the white van made a totally illegal U-turn on the street and roughly pulled up next to me and CoCo. The window rolled down to reveal….Rodrick and friends. WOW, like I never would've seen _that_ coming. Again with the chick-flick moments, make it stop.

"Hey beautiful, didn't see ya there. You're so short I almost missed ya!" he said flirtatiously. I am 5'7! How dare he call me short!

"Uggh Rodrick, you're scaring the poor girl!" CoCo sighed and then laughed.

"You know, I would've mistaken your van for the Pedo Van if it didn't have black spray paint all over it. And what is 'Loded Diper' anyways?" I snapped. There was no way I was gonna let this punk flirt me up like that. I've got standards you know!

"It's our band. You should really check it out. You look like you're into heavy metal and shit like that." He winked. Uggh metal… why does everyone assume that I like heavy metal because of the face jewelry? To be honest, I prefer Led Zeppelin and Lady GaGa over System of a Down any day.

"Nah… I'm more of a pop girl." I replied.

"Ah… well suit yourself beautiful." Rodrick said and tried to act cool by rolling up the window and slowly cruising away. However, it didn't work out too well as he rammed into a few empty garbage cans and proceeded to make skid marks on the sidewalk. How the hell did this guy even get his license?

I noticed a big change in Rodrick's attitude since the morning. He was all shy and stuff when we walked into each other, and now he was just being plain obnoxious. Boys are weird.

CoCo and I arrived at my house and I unlocked the garage door to get in.

"Hey mom, I brought over a friend!" hollered out to her.

"That's great honey! I'll be right down." She shouted back.

"Whoa! A big box!" I heard CoCo say as she wandered over to a big empty cardboard box sitting in the corner. Well it wasn't exactly empty, it was filled with packing peanuts. And then I had the best idea ever!

"Wanna make a clubhouse with it?" I asked really excitedly and CoCo just looked at me with this big huge smile plastered on her face.

"Let's do it!" she shouted and then jumped into the box and sunk into the packing peanuts. She poked her head out of the sea of peanuts and like 15 of them were sticking to her hair.

"Wait for meeeee!" I shriek and I leaped into the box as well. Yes, this is how juniors spend their free time. CoCo and I were now laughing and throwing peanuts and wrestling each other. Of course, mother dearest has to walk in at this moment. She looks at the big cardboard box, and then the both of us playing in it. Her facial expression was priceless.

"Oh hey…." I say innocently and then I realize that I am still holding onto CoCo's nose. Mom just laughs and we both stand up and try to get out of the box. We are covered with packing peanuts from head to toe and they were falling off of us and all over the floor.

"I'm so sorry Mrs. Radford." CoCo said sheepishly. She was looking down with her hands behind her back and her pigtails all bushy form the static. She looked like a little girl who stole a cookie from the cookie jar or something.

Mom just kept on laughing really hard. "Oh it's fine, Sweetie! I am just glad to see that you both are spending time playing with packing peanuts rather than getting into trouble. What's your name?"

"Nicolette Dires, but people just call me CoCo or Nicki." CoCo smiled real big.

"Well _CoCo_, I appreciate that you are tolerating my daughter. You see she's a bit insane-"

"MOM!" I cut off my mother who was trying to tell my very first friend false information to scare her away. What a…. what a meanie!

"I'm just kidding, Tara. Calm down!" she started laughing and CoCo was laughing with her. I pulled off a bunch of packing peanuts from my clothes, hat, and hair and rubbed them all over my mom's hair.

**a/n: hey guys, its been more than a month since my first chapter. High school has really been kicking my ass hard. Ill see if I can update sooner. Hope you liked the chapter. I know it kinda sucked…. Really badly. Alright ill ttyl. Don't forget to review! I really need some ideas. Also, later in the story you will notice a big change in Tara's personality D: guess you all will just have to wait…AAHAHAH kbye…**


End file.
